OL PEJETA CONSERVANCY-THE ART OF ANIMAL SPOTTING

I LOVE safari-ing.

I LOVE seeing my favourite animals, the giraffe and the zebra, the challenge of hunting for the elusive lions and of course elephants are always on my list.  I haven’t been on a proper safari since July last year when I did an Intrepid tour of the Masai Mara.  We did attempt to see some wild life when we were travelling through Benin, and were lucky enough to spot the ear of an elephant that was grazing in 2m long grass.  For the effort of getting to the national park, it wasn’t much reward.  West Africa doesn’t have a lot of wild life, over the years it’s all been consumed and hunted by humans.  Anyway I segue. 

Our game plan for today was to spend most of the day in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy.  We had enquired about doing a safari through KWS (Kenya Wildlife Services) but the cost for that was going to be 4,000KSH (45AUD) per person for TWO hours, where we could take our own car in and pay the resident park fee of 2200KSH each, 1100KSH for Gilbert (a Kenyan) and 400KSH for the car, and we could stay in the park for as long as we wanted!  It was a no brainer really.  The park didn’t open till 7am, so we decided to head out a little later so that we could eat our fabulous included breakfast, which also didn’t start till 7am and we met Gilbert at 7.45am to head to the park. 

We travelled back the same we had travelled yesterday and 40 minutes later we found ourselves at the park gates.  We went into the small office to pay the park fees and we asked if there were walkie talkies that we could hire, so if the office or rangers see anything worth sharing they could let us know and we could high tail it to where the action was.  The answer was a no, but they could text us if they heard of anything, which sounded great and not expecting them to pay for the text messages, we left 200KSH (3AUD) with them, bought the park map for 700KSH (9AUD), which seemed a little rich for a park map, but when Sarah opened it up it had an animal checklist with pictures which was pretty cool and also came in handy for the less popular African animals that we were unsure of as we could identify them with the checklist.  As we got back into the car, we saw a giraffe crossing the road and not far behind a baby giraffe.  What a great start and we hadn’t even entered the park proper yet!!!!   Not far from the park entrance there is yet another EQUATOR sign and even though you are told not get out of your car in non-designated areas, this was an exception and Sarah and I jumped out for a quick photo op.  Something has to be said for getting out of a vehicle in a national park, where wild animals roam, even though we didn’t see any, how do you really know that they weren’t lurking somewhere!!!!!!

The Ol Pejeta Conservancy is a 90,000-acre (360 km2) not-for-profit wildlife conservancy in the Laikipia district of central Kenya. It is situated on the equator west of Nanyuki, between the foothills of the Aberdares and Mount Kenya. The Ol Pejeta Conservancy works to conserve wildlife, provide a sanctuary for great apes and to generate income through wildlife tourism and complementary enterprises for re-investment in conservation and community development.  The Conservancy boasts the largest black rhino sanctuary in East Africa and in 2013 reached a population milestone of 100 black rhino. It also houses four of the seven last remaining northern white rhino in the world, who were moved here from Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic. The Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary is situated here, and provides a haven for orphaned, abandoned and rescued chimpanzees. It is the only place in Kenya where these great apes can be seen. The Conservancy is host to the ‘big five’ among a large selection of other African animals, which makes it a popular safari destination.

During the colonial era, the Laikipia Plateau was utilised as an extensive cattle ranching area. Lacking the rainfall required to successfully cultivate crops, cattle ranching was seen as the next best way to utilise the land. In those days wildlife was perceived as having little or no value to landowners.  John and Jane Kenyon took over the management of Ol Pejeta in 1949 when it was owned by Lord Delamere and together they spent the next 15 years developing the ranch.  When John first took on Ol Pejeta he was joined by a school friend and business partner of Lord Delamere named Marcus Wickham Boynton. Together they organised the then 57,000-acre (230 km2) ranch into a successful beef producing company. Over the next few years they successfully expanded the farm to cover an estimated 90,000 acres (360 km2).  John and Jane left Ol Pejeta in 1958, returning in 1959 for a further ten years before finally retiring to run their own cattle ranch to the north.

Over time, cattle ranching became less and less profitable. Increasingly elephant populations that previously used the ranch as a transit area from the north to Mount Kenya and the Aberdares were forced to take up permanent residence on the property. As a result the fences required to maximise cattle productivity were destroyed, becoming impossible to maintain cost-effectively.  Consequently, in the face of declining wildlife populations elsewhere and as a means to effectively utilise the land, the recent past has seen increasing emphasis placed upon wildlife conservation.  In 1988, the Sweetwaters Game Reserve (24,000 acres) was opened by another of Ol Pejeta’s previous owners, Lonrho Africa. Primarily started as a sanctuary for the endangered black rhino, wildlife populations (including the “Big Five”) have steadily increased since that time.  This has created the largest black rhino sanctuary in East Africa. 

So according to the map we had all members of the ‘big five’ can be found on the Ol Pejeta Conservancy; lion, buffalo, elephant, leopard and rhino and we had only driven 3 minutes into the park when we saw a rhino!  The day was shaping up to be a great start.  That’s the thing with doing a safari, you just never know if you are going to see a mass of animals or be terribly unlucky and not see much at all.  So far so good for us though!!!  Well as the morning warmed up, the animal sightings grew less and less.  There was plenty of Zebra, a few buffalo, Pumba’s and we got a close up of a giraffe that would have been about 10m away from us eating some lunch and then we probably went for 2 hours of seeing a lot of nothing!  We saw an elephant, a single bull, about 1km away from us, but apparently the park claims to also have other rare animals that include the endangered African wild dog, Oryx, Jackson’s hartebeest, Grevy's zebra, zebra, serval, cheetah and bat-eared fox. The more common African wildlife can, of course, be found here too; giraffe, vervet monkeys, baboons, hippos, impala, eland, Grant’s gazelle, dik-dik, plains zebra, silver backed jackal and hyena. There are also over 300 bird species on the Conservancy, which we did see quite a few birds. All the animals are free to move in and out of the Conservancy by way of specially constructed ‘game corridors’ that only restrict the movement of rhinos. Knee high posts in the ground, situated very close together, present no challenge for elephant, antelope and carnivores, who are easily able to jump or step over. Rhinos are unable to do this, and as a result are restricted from moving into areas where they are in danger of being slaughtered for their horn.

We were recommended to get to the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary around 11.30am.  What we did find confusing was that the map we were given the roads and checkpoints were numbered, but the actual signs in the park were named and not numbered, so it was a little difficult at times to cross reference where we actually were.  They also have all the signs at junctions, but they all faced the way that you drive in, so at times we would have to do a whole lap to read all the signs to make sure we were heading in the right direction.  A very antiquated and non-user friendly system at times.  But we found The Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary around 11.45am which is incorporated within the Ol Pejeta Conservancy and is the only place in Kenya where this highly endangered and remarkably intelligent species can be seen. The Sanctuary opened in 1993 in a negotiated agreement between the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the Jane Goodall Institute. The facility was initially established to receive and provide lifelong refuge to orphaned and abused chimpanzees from west and central Africa. An initial group of three chimpanzee orphans were brought to the sanctuary from a facility in Bujumbura, Burundi, that needed to be evacuated due to the civil war. This was followed in 1995 by another group of 9 adult chimpanzees, and another 10 in 1996. Over the last decade Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary has been compelled to keep accepting chimpanzees rescued from traumatic situations bringing the total number of chimpanzees in the sanctuary to 43.

At the Sweetwaters Sanctuary, chimpanzees are nursed back to health and enjoy the rest of their days in the safety of a vast natural enclosure. The chimpanzees live in two large groups separated by the Ewaso Nyiro River.  We could only see one family today as part of the second family’s fence was being repaired and the family were not allowed out to play.  It reminded me of my visit to the Tucaguma Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone last year, as that is also a Jane Goodall initiative, but the main difference being they hope to eventually release their chimps back into the wild there.  We were met by one of the rangers that works solely with the chimps and we were walked to the water’s edge of the Ewaso Nyiro River.  It was weird that there wasn’t an enclosure as such where we were; the river was used as the fence from our side as the chimps apparently don’t like swimming and getting wet, so there is no chance of them crossing the river.  I mentioned knowing just how smart and cunning these chimps are, that I was surprised that they hasn’t tried to cross using something to float across and he said they haven’t worked that out yet, but he does see them using sticks in the water to gauge just how deep the river is!  Yes they are very smart animals indeed.  We got to meet around 9 of the family member’s; it was starting to get quite hot and were retreating into the shade of the trees to stay out of the midday sun.  We took a walk around the perimeter of the enclosure to stretch our legs and with a small tip for the ranger and directions on where we could have lunch we were back on the road. 

It was well past midday when we left the Chimps and with directions to head to Hippo Hill for lunch we arrived 15 minutes later.  There was a ranger sitting under the shade of the tree and he pulled out some benches from the Hippo info/shelter and we sat under the shade of a massive tree with a partial view of the river and ate our prepacked lunches that the hotel had packed for us that morning.  We were surprised at what goodies laid within our lunch bags including 2 half sandwiches, 4 pieces of fruit, a bag of chips, a Ribena popper and 2 pieces of cake!!!  In the end the ranger got left quite a lot of fruit and a few bags of chips.  He looked very grateful for the food and also the company when he took us for a walk along the top of the riverbank in search for hippos!!!  By this time we were in the heat of the day, so it was increasingly hard to spot one of the most dangerous animals in the world.  We did eventually find a family of them, but their skin can get sunburned just like humans, so in the heat of the day they spend 90% of their time below the water with the occasional bubbles signalling where they were and nostrils appearing to get some more air before they dived back under again.  We must have stood there for a good 20 minutes, me with my camera poised in the hope of getting a picture, but they were playing ball with us and with my fair mzungu skin we walked back the way we had come and with a wave to the ranger we were back on the road for more animal spotting.

It really was a hot day, and the smartest animals were nowhere to be scene as they retreated into the cool shade of the trees, somewhere.  We didn’t see a thing for over an hour as we made our way to the last stop of the day before heading back to the hotel.  A giraffe picked up our spirits, where we stopped and turned off the engine as we watched him chewing away on an Acacia tree for a good 10 minutes and it was cool to just put the camera down for a few minutes and just marvel at this magnificent creature, that in Australia we just read about them in picture books and here I am staring at a GIRAFFE in AFRICA.  These are the days that I truly appreciate where I am, what is in my Kenyan backyard.  How lucky are we!? 

These are the tough times when there are no animals on the plains but after a 40 minute drive following a fully electrified perimeter fence, which through we could see one, then two, then three rhino’s behind the fence.  We were wondering if we had crossed out of the park somewhere and we were on the wrong side of the fence until we saw the signage for Morani and we were later to find out why the rhino were on the ‘other’ side of the fence.  The fence not only demarcates the Conservancy’s boundary but also prevents human-wildlife conflict.  The fence keeps the rhino from wandering into dangerous territory, while safely directing elephants along their migratory routes. Ol Pejeta currently has a fence attendant for every 7 kilometres of fence who conducts maintenance and provides security in the form of insurgence detection. The fence is monitored 24 hours with a response team based at the control offices to respond to any incidents at night.  Big job on a 90,000 acre piece of land!!!!

We parked the car and we were met by a ranger who gave us some information on the rhinos that we saw and also the history behind the animals and their rhino programme.  The guys we saw were the northern white rhino, and are one of the 5 rhino species still remaining, and only just. Closely resembling its southern white cousin, the northern whites were hit particularly hard in the poaching epidemic of the 80’s and early 90’s. Now extinct in the wild, there are just seven left in captivity, and on December 20th, 2009, Ol Pejeta became home to four of them. Two males and two females were moved from Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic in the hope that the climate and rich grasslands of Ol Pejeta, a native habitat for the animals, would provide them with more favourable breeding conditions.  Sudan, Suni, Fatu and Najin enjoy 24hr armed security and a 700-acre enclosure.  Such is the plight of this species that Ol Pejeta is now planning to cross-breed the closely related southern white rhinos with the northern whites, to preserve northern white rhino genetics in hybrid offspring.

We were lucky that we had arrived after a school group and were the only people there.  We walked along a pathway and at the end there was the resident black rhino named Baraka.  He is a tame black rhino, and was one of the first rhinos born in the open fields of the Ol Pejeta Conservancy on November 20th, 1994.  This tender hearted mammal was aptly named Baraka meaning “blessings” in Swahili. Black rhinos are very aggressive and will fight each other to protect their territories and unfortunately for Baraka, he was involved in a fight that caused an injury to one of his eyes. This eye later developed an abscess that ruptured and consequently had to be removed. As if life hadn’t proven to be difficult enough for this young rhino, Baraka later developed a crystallized cataract in his other eye which, even after numerous attempts at finding a cure, eventually led him to become completely blind.  The loss of one sense only heightens another, and like a child learning to take his first step, Baraka needed some time to adjust. Therefore, to shield him from additional peril, he was transferred from the wild and put in a 100-acre enclosure.  Baraka is now a major attraction at the Morani Information Centre replacing Morani (another resident rhino who died in 2009) as an ambassador for the species. However, he will never be able to match Morani’s good nature and willingness to allow visitors a “hands-on” experience.  It is for this reason that there is a feeding platform from which visitors can feed Baraka three times a day. This was unexpected.  We didn’t think we would be hand feeding a black rhino today and I was bouncing around like a little kid in anticipation.  Some local ‘weeds’ were picked on our walk to the platform and with a little coaxing to get Baraka out of the shade of the tree, this MASSIVE monster of an animal came up to the platform where we were shown how to feed him and then we were all given a chance to feed this magnificent African animal and he even let us pat his horn!!  IMAGINE!!!!!!  It was an amazing experience and when we had run out of food he made his way back to the shade of his tree and with some effort sat back down again with a few old man noises!  What an experience!

We learnt that poaching and habitat loss are depleting rhino and elephant populations all over Africa. 1kg of rhino horn, erroneously believed to have medicinal properties by many people in Asia, and used as traditional dagger handles in Yemen, can fetch between USD 60,000 and USD 100,000. 1kg of ivory can fetch between USD 1,000 and USD 3,000. (Prices at the time of writing, Jan.2014). With the tusks of an adult elephant weighing anything up to 50kg, profits for poachers and traders are huge. The trade in rhino horn and ivory is so lucrative that increasingly, poachers are gaining access to automatic weapons, silencers and night-vision to carry out their ruthless kills. Needless to say, protecting wildlife from these criminals is an expensive business. Convention has it that the cost of protecting wildlife habitat doubles with the presence of black rhino. Currently it costs approximately US$70 per acre (US$17,300 per square kilometre) to secure the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, who have a number of security and anti-poaching measures including dogs, bloodhounds that are trained to track human scent, and are often the first on the scene at any incidents and the Dutch Malanois dogs have been trained in tracking, attack, patrol, and ivory detection, a Piper Subercub aircraft, drones, armed teams, Rhino patrols and general security.

The population of black rhino in Africa plummeted from an estimated 65,000 to around 10,000 in the early 1980s. By 2001, the total African population was estimated at 3,100.  In Kenya alone, the population dropped from 20,000 to less than 300 due to illegal killing for rhino horn. This represents a loss of 4.5 rhinos a day for 10 years. At present, there are an estimated 620 black rhino in Kenya, and 100 of them live on the Ol Pejeta Conservancy as our flagship species. Kenya is the stronghold of the last remaining population of eastern sub-species (Diceros bicornis michaeli), holding 88% of the world’s remaining population. In response to the drastic reduction in rhino numbers through poaching, Kenya decided to set up specially protected and fenced sanctuaries for rhino conservation. The creation of these sanctuaries was designed to maximize breeding potential, using surplus animals to re-stock any new areas. Ol Pejeta is one such sanctuary and we were lucky enough to visit and see the animals for ourselves.  

By this time it was a little after 3pm and it was time for us to head home.  We were dusty, a little tired, even though Gilbert had done all the driving and I had a lovely truckers tan (sunburn) reddening up on my right arm after hanging out of the car all day.  As things always have a way of working out, not 15 minutes into the drive we saw a family of elephants walk across the road in front of us and they didn’t seem too concerned about us.  I find elephants amazing creatures.  Even though they are so big and so quite when they walk, they certainly have a speed to them and where you see a family one minute they can disappear just as quick the next.  We were lucky to get a few precious minutes with the family of 8 as they crossed and then they were gone behind the trees and it was an INCREDIBLE way to finish off a great, if not a fully filled animal day.  We never did receive a single text message from the office.  I think we may have been sucked into a little scam on that.  The reception in the park was intermittent, so in hindsight it was probably unlikely we would have received any messages anyway.  Did the rangers know that and just took our cash anyway?  Well some things you win and some things you don’t.